Mexican Murals. Tlaltizapan: lions, boars, dogs, birds and dolphins, oh my!

Tlaltizapan
Chalk Hill

San Miguel Tlaltizapan, a battlemented Dominican church and convento, is located in the tropical sugar country of southern Morelos near Temimilcingo. 

While much of the original decoration has been erased or whitewashed in the cloister and lower sections of the convento, several mural passages survive in the friezes and ceilings of the upper rooms, where faded geometrical artesonado designs in reds and blues decorate the walls and ceilings interposed with Dominican insignia.    

    Along the walls inventive, swagged and grotesque style friezes, predominantly colored in red oxide, showcase a variety of animals, real and imagined. Birds, dolphins, lions, deer, even wild boar make an appearance, intermingled with baskets and swaths of luxuriant vegetation.

Giant swags with lion’s head 

lunette with Dominican cross and dogs

Swag with boar’s head

Floral frieze with birds, dolphins and rattlesnakes

The crowned eagle escutcheon of St. Michael

text © 2016  and mural images © 1987 Richard D. Perry. All rights reserved.

see some of our other posts on Mexican Murals:  Cuautinchán; Xometla; Culhuacán; Zacualpan; Ozumba; Tlalmanalco; Ixmilquilpan; Mama;  Izucar; Tree murals; Tepeapulco; Tula; Epazoyucan; Zempoala; Yecapixtla;